Certain famous women evoke the public’s sentiment for decades, their elegance and beauty long transcending their lifetimes. Grace Kelly, Princess Diana, and Marilyn Monroe are each among them.
But perhaps America’s heart still belongs to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Though her days in the White House began more than 55 years ago — and ended tragically and prematurely — the country still remembers the illusion of Camelot and that seemingly perfect, happy young family the media adored.
“People like to believe in fairy tales.”
Jackie’s style and shy, proper grace still fascinate us. While many films have depicted her life in various ways, no filmmaker has attempted to portray her emotional and mental state immediately after the assassination of John F. Kennedy — until now. Chilean director Pablo Larrain has done just that with “Jackie,” starring Natalie Portman as the first lady.
The film premiered at this summer’s Venice Film Festival to rave reviews. But do not call it a biopic. “The approach was unique because [Larrain] was really trying to create a very psychological portrait of who the human being was, not the icon that we’re all familiar with,” Portman told Vanity Fair.
“It really is condensed into the four days after the assassination,” Portman added, “so time-wise, it’s not a traditional biopic. It’s not linear, either, within that. There’s bits of fragmented memory, and there are some flashbacks to before the White House. Emotionally, too, it’s much more like, I feel, I experience life. It’s emotion and memory, and it doesn’t have a linear narrative.”
The film’s premise is Jackie sharing memories with a reporter (played by Billy Crudup) at her home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. She tells him that she will be editing him as she gives details, and she warns him that there are certain details that he will not be permitted to publish at all.
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The first lady’s stories and details focus on how she grieved, yet bore the aftershocks following JFK’s death — including standing, still somewhat dazed by the chaos, next to Lyndon B. Johnson as he was quickly sworn into office on Air Force One.
She also talks of how she told young Caroline and John Jr. that their father had suddenly gone “to heaven.” The film portrays many flashbacks with some imaginative yet modest poetic license, including what Jackie felt — the anguish, loneliness, and anger — as well as her private moments and thoughts.
“Jackie” has received high praise so far, and Portman’s performance may earn her a second Academy Award.
At a press conference in September, she called the role the most challenging of her career, saying, “It definitely felt the most dangerous because everyone knows what she looked like, how she walked, how she talked … Everyone has their idea of her. She’s a symbol, she’s a woman, she’s a wife, she’s a betrayed wife, she’s a person trying to find her way in the world … There are so many things she is dealing with.”
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Pablo Larrain seems to have understood how much the enigmatic Jackie dealt with, and how she strived to remain proper and inscrutable through it all. He told Deadline, “I don’t think the movie will deliver all the answers. It needs an audience to digest it. Even after the movie, you still don’t get who she was; I found beauty in that.”
While Jackie herself might remain mysterious, her graceful handling of JFK’s legacy helped to make him an understandable historic figure. A student of history, she understood, as Portman said, “how important it is who writes history.”
After her husband’s death, she defined who he would forever be to the public. “It had to be done quickly,” Portman explained, “because there were dozens of other people ready to jump in and publish the first book about him, and she needed to be there to control it. And she did, brilliantly. The legends that she invented endure today.”
Her own legend and beauty obviously endure as well.
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